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But this time RBS is being forced to pay for sins committed on the other side of the Atlantic. The lender is accused of packaging up an estimated $100bn in risky sub-prime mortgages in Nevada in the run up to the credit crunch between 2004 and 2007.

These were then sold on as complicated investments called mortgage backed securities.

The Nevada Attorney General said by generating a huge market for these investments, RBS encouraged lenders to routinely foist risky sub-prime mortgages on customers who could never afford to repay them.

It said the bank’s actions had a ‘devastating effect on Nevada homeowners and communities’ as house prices crashed and citizens were kicked out of their homes.

During a reckless lending spree by banks across the world, borrowers who could barely afford to pay rent were lent money to buy homes in the belief that rising house prices would ensure the loans were cleared.

The collapse of house prices in the US from 2005 onwards caused countless Americans to default on their repayments. Nevada, nicknamed the Silver State, was one of the worst hit and became a poster child for the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Following a two-year investigation the Nevada Attorney General indicated that RBS was aware of this mis-selling when it bought the loans to convert into investments.

It is likely this could be the first of a series of pay-outs for the scandal hit lender, which is propped up with £45billion of taxpayers’ money. RBS said it neither admits or denies wrongdoing. It added that it is ‘glad the matter is resolved’.

The bank faces two separate probes from US regulators and reached a £32millio settlement with Massachusetts Attorney General last year.

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Royal Bank of Scotland fined £26m by Nevada over toxic home loans which helped trigger global financial crisis